March 9, 2023 - Back Woods @ Bryan Park (informative)

I did two short tracks in the woods (under story was mix of some open space, some thickets, lots of fallen logs).  Again, I set up "problem solving" situations for Mila with using the overshot turn where I walk about 5 steps beyond where I plan to turn.  I wanted to do the same "problem" at different ages to see what impact the aging has.  These were informative (as in lots of good observations) but not really sure what to do with the information 😏...

I continued to face perpendicular or opposite direction of track/turn and eyes closed at "smell stops" along track, at start, and at turns (when I could).  Lots of praise at food drops; articles - play at end.

Super motivated for both tracks with strong starts (though I'd like to increase that even more)... Note on starts - the past few tracks I realized that I had been scuffing too many starts so that when others have not scuffed the start in class, her starts got weaker.  I have started walking 10 - 15 steps and then scuffing - Judi - what's the next action here - make the "confirmation scuff" further away, reduce it to a couple steps; get rid of all together (I know that's the eventual goal - but when?)?

Track 1 - younger ~ 1hr 45min (running age in woods? I know woods keeps it "fresher" but by how much?)

Interesting observations - she likes to meander in the woods & chooses routes that don't always make sense (like looping around the large beech tree when the track next to it was clear w/out any notable icky footing).  Because the meandering, she misses intermediary articles  - Leg 2 had a glove that was missed in part because she was meandering and then my eyes were closed 😂) - Judi - Is there anything to be done to reduce meandering without losing motivation?

She ignored overshot steps at T1 for this track (not for track 2 w/ more age); LOS at T2 - glance at turn direction - check out opposite; return to turn & go down track.

 

 

 

Track 2 -  (~2 hrs 25 min)

More interesting observations - again, strong start (continued with walking 10 - 15 steps and then a short scuff ~ 5); she made an interesting choice at the second log she had to go over. Where the track went, the log was higher than I wanted her jumping, but too low to go under - so I did a turn along the log with a very short leg (not sure you can even count it as a leg) and then I went over at low/easy crossing.  I wanted to observe this one - so did turn opposite direction, but also kept glancing over shoulder so I could see what she did.  She checked out the initial straight direction (smelled over, smelled under, smelled a little left and little right - took her a couple min to be confident about direction and then followed the track - then smelled log where I went over it and decided to go around the end of it...about 8 steps from where I went over and then quickly made her way to the track.

At this overshot turn, she initially indicated the correct direction and took the turn, then decided to come back to the overshot steps and apparently found one particular scent molecule she wanted to follow around, so when she looped back from the overshot steps, she meandered through several small trees like she was inventing the pulley system such that by the time she was happily taking the turn again, I had to call her back for a minute to get us untangled. Once untangled enough, she "happily" continued down the leg to the article (the two gullies didn't seem to be a problem) with a nice indication.

 

 

 

 

 

March 8, 2023 - Backyard - Understanding Aged Scent (experiment)

Location: My back yard (not ideal, I know) - I used a section I had not let her walk in that day; it's also an area she doesn't spend a ton of time in.

Ground cover: Mix of grass, weeds, wild violets, wild onion (damp ground)

Conditions: Mostly sunny, quite windy, chilly = 46F (feels like temp 41F); DP-22; Humidity - 38%

Overview - I feel like Mila is missing a piece of the puzzle when scent begins to age so I'm trying to untangle where the missing piece might be. As an aside, this seems to have a greater impact the sunnier and warmer it is. Today's temps won't replicate that part but that's okay since this is just a start (and I may abandon it after talking to Judi).

Set up: 3 separate scent pads (~ 2x2x2x2 ft) approx 10 feet from each other (if done again, would like to place them further apart).  The entire interior of each scent pad was stepped on & ~ 10 - 12 food drops were placed in each.  Each was aged as follows: 1 - 1 hr | 2 - 2 hrs 5 min  | 3 - 3 hrs.  Pads were laid around 10 am and then run at around 11:00, 12:00, & 1:00.  No prompting was needed by me.  She wore harness as she would tracking and I moved clip from collar to harness at edge of each.

Observations at each:

Pad 1 - strong "start" - mainly started as eating exercise rather than smelling 😉, but as treat number reduced, smelling increased - for this one when she left the pad, there was a little confusion but that seemed more related to the 'newness' of the exercise. She returned to the pad for the final couple treats.

Pad 2 - even stronger - you could tell she had a better understanding of what was happening for this one - lots more smelling & quicker return to pad when her explorations drew her out of the square.

Pad 3 - increased strength of behavior all around w/ even quicker return to pad (she had left like 1 food drop that she looked for out of the square, then quickly returned with lots of audible smelling till she found it).

Judi - should I keep doing this? Suggestions, etc?

February 27, 2023 - Haley's - Continue Reducing Cues & Problem Solving

I wanted to again practice turning away from turns, etc plus adding in an element of problem solving for Mila on the track so I did an "overshoot" walk for turn 3. Mila initially turned left correctly at the turn, then came back and checked out the overshot steps, then glanced at me (this is the only time I noted that she was definitely looking for a cue of some sort), then she looped back to the turn and track and went down it nicely. Article indication for article on Leg 2 was strong, w/ very strong restart; and end article was okay (not as good as article on leg 2, but she "likes" bandanas so not completely surprising).

 

February 25, 2023 - DRH - Problem Solving & Reducing Inadvertent Cues

 

 

 Judi noticed that Mila was waiting for subtle (and not so subtle) cues from me to track so I worked on strategies she suggested (facing opposite direction of turns; closing eyes till I feel tracking in the line). These were two short tracks mainly to practice those.

Overall - These felt good; after somewhat slow starts, strong tracking down the line and turns; good indications

February 18, 2023 - Tracking Class (Overtons)

Location: The Overtons

Ground Cover: grass

Track Layers: Tracks 1 & 2 - Leigh;  Track 3 & 4 - Kelly 

Conditions - Cool, Sunny (Temps ranged from low 30's for 1 & 2; 38 for 3 & 4)

Starts - 4 starts, to run at 30, 60, 120, 150". 50x50. NO SCUFF, NO FOOD on first. Scuff start & out of turn only, one food drop on second leg, on second start. Scuff start, and into and out of turn on third track, with one food drop on each leg. Last track, scuff start, food at 20, scuff again at 30, food at 40, scuff turn, food at 15, scuff at 20, food at 30, walk to article.

Tracks 1 & 2 (no food in articles) - Map + Videos;  Tracks 3 & Track 4 - Judi was there

Track 1 - slow start, then after a 'where's your track' she was off nicely...nice turn, good article indication

Track 2 - incessant dog barking at Mila really caused issues. I used verbal cuing to get her through, but in retrospect, not sure this was a good decision (particularly in light of Judi's observation for Track 4 - possibly Mila is waiting for me to cue her to take the "right" track?). You might not be able to hear the dog barking initially (it's barking when you first hear Mila bark), but it's a little dog bark that's nonstop... I initially tried not to say anything to her and let her work it out, but that didn't really work out, so I had start to verbally cue her to keep going.  Also, Mila indicates one of Leigh's ground clips so I treated it like an article. After the turn, I stayed much closer to her to help support and likely cued with my body some too.

 

 

February 11, 2023 - Tracking Class (Overtons)

 Location: The Overtons (started behind house)

Ground Cover: Combo of nice grass + woods

Track Layer: Kelly Gannon

Conditions -50's, Sunny

TL: 8:30am TR: 11:20am

Articles - Start: leather glove; 2) soft plastic baby shoe (woods); End: black sun glass box (F)

Overall impressions:Weakish start and low motivation on track - high head tracking and just overall reduced drive. Was asked after woods, if I wanted to end; but took Judi's comments the prior week about believing in and challenging Mila more to heart and pressed on (maybe not best decision...hard to say; chat w/ Judi to ask later).  Mila finished - tracked ~ 2.5 to right of track along the rest of the leg, then triangulated back to end article. Track was quite a bit more aged than we had been working on, reinforcement was reduced, hot day (for Mila); start near distractions (house + larger group following + ambulance w/ sirens about 10 yards down track).  Probably better to work on on these things separately.  Things to work on - increase drive; starts near distractions; groups following; reducing reinforcement; working through conditions (like heat) that Mila finds not ideal. 

 

February 4, 2023 - Tracking Class (Overtons)

 Location: The Overtons (larger front pasture)

Ground Cover: Nice thick grass along fence line

Track Layer: Self

Conditions - Perfect for Mila! Temp - 17F (feels like 12F) Humidity: 47% (DP: 0) 

TL: 8:40am TR: (est) 10:50ish

Articles (all w/ F) - Start: crochet thing; 2) bandana; End: green leather glove

Overall impressions: Mila tracked beautifully - strong start, few smellsporations; nice turn; "marching" (Mila's version) down the track; articles indicated nicely 

Track "divided" into 100 yard segments

1st 100 - no food, no scuff

2nd 100 - 2 food drops -  F@ 30 and 60

3rd 100 - 3 food drops - F@ 25, 55, 65

4th 100, etc Food drops = yard number & food drops evenly spaced

Interestingly...Mila chose not to eat most the food drops except for just after where you can see the gate is and it's more worn out and then again during the last 150 yards, she showed more attention to the food drops.